“Takes Two to Tango”

ESPatch May 24, 2013 13 comments

I went on my rounds the other day in the front of the Patch. Pulling on the the occasional 6ft strands of Bermuda grass that insist on growing through my rosemary urgh and admiring just how fast oleander grows and how prolifically it blooms when something caught my attention curbside.

Below my opuntia tree,

which is covered in buds and a few blooms. I noticed something bright, something orange.

I moved in closer.

Ignoring the weeds and the seeding Mexican oregano (I do very little maintenance in my front garden), there it was, shining brightly in the heart of my King sago palm.

Cycas revoluta

How could I have missed this golden egg?

There were numerous other artifacts lying around the pollen coated base, I assume tribal offerings from the little folk who must now be worshiping the new Megalithic Structure on this plant that dates back at least 200 million years.

Sagos are cycads rather than actual palms as the name suggests, and they are dioecious, which means there are male plants and female plants and, like humans, to reproduce it takes both sexes.

Male sago palm flowers like this one produce a long (occasionally multiple), golden pollen cone-like structure called a strobilus. Most Sagos must be at least 15-20 years old before they are mature enough to bloom and reproduce.

Here is the female plant seedpod, about the size of a basketball,

Photo credit: brewbooks

and here it is opening up, revealing the internal seeds:

In their native habitat of southern Japan Cycads are pollinated by wind or insects, but to ensure pollination here in Central Texas you can dust some of the male pollen into the seed basket.

This can be done by crudely cutting off the male appendage and shaking it over the female

to disperse the pollen…aw come on!

A single male strobilus has plenty of pollen and can be used on several females at a time, or on one several days in a row.

Enough Austin!

Researching this post I did come across some hilarious documentation that stated some home owners have been so ’embarrassed’ with their neighborhood-shocking male strobili that they actually threw towels over them to hide them.

Imagine that scene?

I also found out that sago palm seeds contain two carcinogens, macrozamin and cycasin, which can apparently be absorbed through the skin – so use impermeable gloves when working with these seeds.

Now…to find a female plant!

Does anyone in Austin know of one / seen one / have one and are willing to get these plants together?

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Finally:

More welcome spring rains are hitting us…at about an inch an hour!

When this happens,

this happens to my Buddha’s belly bamboo…

she’s a 40ft leaner.

This Alphonse Karr bamboo also lowers its much smaller culms when saturated.

Fragrant mist flowers are out of control with the surprise moisture, as is this evergreen wisteria that threatens to consume anyone who lingers too long on my garden bench.

Spent poppy heads have buckled in the rain, dispensing their royal seeds through their crowns and into the damp granite.

And we all know the next devious scene…

garden-snails

They know what to do when it rains…

f10051ceb15f2f55a88abe22693e212e Stay Tuned for:

“Megasporophylls!”

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“Fly Away Home”

ESPatch May 22, 2013 6 comments

I relate to the futility of this scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan every time I position myself by the side of my Bermuda-grass-infested barrel cactus with my large pliers in-hand. I have learned my lessons painfully over the years and found this to be the ‘almost’ perfect extraction tool.

I say ‘almost’ as you can never actually defeat the roots of this grass by pulling at them.

“We will fight Bermuda in the berms, we will fight it in the planting-beds, we will fight it…etc.”

Propped up against my satsuma tree, thoroughly defeated (and usually wounded myself),

I feel like repeatedly squirting a water gun filled with ‘RoundUp’ at it in a last ditch attempt at conquering my enemy, but of course that would be futile and only result in killing the cactus.

My only tactic at this point, as it has been for years, is to inhibit it spreading.

“Aye, extracting the grass from the barrel cactus killed me son…but your gloves are new William. Have the courage to use them…

wait, are you asleep?”

“That is a bit of a stretch even for me ESP?”

Don’t you have some bugs to jump on?

Dramatic Anole?

Moving swiftly along:

Here is another great full-sun, fire / ice combination, the view from my front window.

Nerium oleander ‘Hardy Red’ and ‘silver king’ artemesia.

Remember all the pick, pick, picking?

Well there has been a lot of developments on these wild sunflowers over the past week.

They have grown, a lot.

Standing proud now at about nine feet tall with small flowers they will make a complete mess when I finally extract them, but for now they are home to many creatures.

Of course there are these, (don’t think about the proboscis, don’t think about the proboscis, don’t th…),

and plenty of these.

Ladybugs, (or ladybirds in the UK), lay their eggs where there is a plentiful supply of aphids to feast on, the ants appear to like them too.

The whole ladybug development cycle was visible on these sunflowers:

Ladybug Larva

Pupa

It takes a few days to turn red.

No Bear, it has not ‘ripened’!

Finally:

Jerusalem Sage,

Phlomis fruticosa

continues to put on a fine display, as do the Jewels of Opar:

Here is a shot of the tiny flowers mentioned in my previous post.

Inland sea oats developing seed heads, and I promise the last shot of this duranta, for a while.

Stay Tuned for:

“Two to Tango”